Braintree Payments recently announced it will leverage its innovative online backend gateway with mobile payment technologies developed by Venmo Touch, which was acquired by Braintree last summer.

Braintree is an innovative and fast-growing online payment and mobile commerce company that has extended the capabilities of such payment brands as Visa, Master Card, American Express and Discover by capturing the developers at innovative online firms such as Airbnb, Uber and Github. Braintree has released a private beta version of the Venmo Touch SDK that enables one-touch-payments across multiple mobile apps. An iOS versions will be included in the private beta.

This is very powerful because many consumers remain hesitant to entering their credit and debit card information into their mobile devices. However, compelling mobile apps can help them overcome this resistance. Once users’ payment information has been added, they can use one-touch-payments in any merchants’ mobile app built with the Venmo Touch SDK.

"We are looking forward to working with our merchants on solving the unique contextual challenges that that they face in the shift to mobile commerce," Braintree Payments CEO Bill Ready says.

Having won over 4,000 merchants with a better online payment gateway that is easier to integrate and helps online merchants comply with regulations less expensively, Braintree enables repeat purchases for over 35 million customers with securely stored payment information from its merchants. Venmo Touch enables consumers to opt in with a security code to use stored payment information across its merchant base after an app employing the Venmo Touch SDK has captured the consumer’s attention and motivated the consumer to enter payment information for the first and only time.

While it is a hassle to re-enter payment information every time a user downloads a new app, users are also less likely to enter their payment information into less popular and less frequently used apps, which can eliminate some sales opportunities. Every app developer’s success rests on a customer’s first use of the app. A frictionless experience on first use is important to developers.

Hotel Tonight CEO Sam Shank described Braintree and Venmo Touch’s value when he said “as an app developer laser-focused on customer experience, one of our primary goals is simplicity. It's great to offer customers who opt-in one fewer step between download and booking a hotel room, Braintree understands that consumer experience is a huge differentiator for mobile apps, and Venmo Touch will make that experience even better."

Braintree stands to benefit by creating a network effect of consumer purchases across its growing base of merchants. Given that 25% of the $6 billion in annual transactions processed by Braintree payments are already mobile payments, and the innovative and disruptive class of new growing merchants that Braintree has won, the merchants’ customers are likely less resistant to adopting new mobile payment solutions that should accelerate this network effect.

Though the company did not release its future plans beyond this private beta, one can infer that Braintree could offer powerful promotional, affinity, and cost-savings programs to its merchants once the network reaches enough consumers. One merchant could offer a discount if its product or service was purchased simultaneously with those of another merchant. For instance, Uber could offer a discount to people booking at OpenTable. Or a credit balance held by one merchant could be used to pay another merchant. And, lastly, a merchant comfortable with a consumer’s credit worthiness or delivering a product or service the next day could opt for a lower transaction cost by accepting overnight ACH withdrawals from the consumer’s checking account.

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Steven Max Patterson lives in Boston and San Francisco where he follows and writes about trends in software development platforms, mobile, IoT, wearables and next generation television. His writing is influenced by his 20 years' experience covering or working in the primordial ooze of tech startups.